2001. East Timor remains a dangerous place. Memories of pröIndonesian savagery linger, a resurgent militia threatens, and a secret war rages between Indonesia and Australia. Agent runner Matt Hurley is swept up in a maelstrom when one of his agents is brutally murdered. Seeking justice, he must partner with the shadowy world of counter-intelligence and in doing so, familiar faces begin to surface from his own troubled past; the wily spymaster Harry Faversham, and the talented and irresistible Maggie. The rollercoaster gathers speed with the death of the killer, but all is not as it seems. To bring everything into the open Hurley conceives a strategy to terrify his true quarry into confession. But success also brings the unexpected - an opportunity to capture militia leader Marcelino Borges, sadistic ringmaster of the infamous Kissing House, a dark place of rape and murder, hiding in West Timor. Near tragedy strikes during the attempt to take Borges and in the aftermath, Hurley must go secretly into West Timor to rescue the remnants of Maggie's team, now on the run. To uncover the last secret Hurley must himself confront the beast Borges. His revelation brings everything down and propels Hurley towards the real arch-traitor he is seeking, and an outcome from which there will be no turning back.